14 Jul 2016

 The Assistant Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Mr Frans Van Der Westhuizen has expressed concern at the rate at which complaints of cracking houses flood his ministry once contractors have left site.

Speaking during a tour of the Letlhakeng infrastructure development project on Wednesday, Mr Van Der Westhuizen said such cases appear after projects have been handed over to government and the contractor has left the site.

He therefore advised all the stakeholders concerned to ensure that the issue was resolved well on time so that remedial works could be done before the contractor clears site.

The minister also advised the contractor of the need to take on board the community through kgotla meetings so that the community could also appreciate the challenges they faced. 

Mr Van Der Westhuizen also advised the contractor to speed up the construction of the storm water drainage component as well as the installation of streets lights, which are part of the infrastructure.

He appreciated the teamwork that existed between the contractor and the council, saying that lack of such was a major challenge when the project started to the extent that it contributed immensely to its delay.

The project was supposed to be completed in April this year, but has since been given a seven-month extension to mid-December.

Briefing on the progress of the project, the chief civil and mechanical engineer for Kweneng District Council Mr Gaborone Phiri indicated that most of the works for the roads component were complete, except culverts and road marking which were also expected to be completed soon.

“So far we have identified 95 access bridges around the village of which 45 have already been completed. The rest will be completed by 21st of this month,” he said.

Mr Phiri indicated that some of the factors that delayed the construction of the culverts were that the contractor gets river sand far while the community also made unrealistic demands such as requiring to be lodged in hotels while access to their homes was still being constructed.

He also indicated that the issue of cracking houses has not been competed yet.

He said after terminating the services of the consultant, they had to complete most works through the council’s internal resources.

At  the moment the project is at 75 perc ent complete for all works, and  out of a total of 22km of storm water drainage, 1 km has already been lined-up while 5km has been excavated and the drainage system will be completed end of November. ENDS